Saturday, thank God. How about an easy dinner and these steamed mussels with saffron cream to the rescue?
It was a doozy of a week but thankfully the week ended better than it started, and it’s the weekend and things on my end are footloose and fancy free. Not completely, chores must be done (adulting, you know), but all is well.
Discussions this week more often than not turned to upcoming summer vacations. Usually I stay close to home during the summer because it’s the time of the year that Chicago shines, and I try to eat up every minute of not-frozen, sun-soaked glory. But listening to others’ travel plans to Spain and Italy and Peru is making me rethink my rule.
The reality is that summer travel, beyond a trip home to Michigan, won’t be happening, at least not in the grand way that I would like, and therefore the best I can do is recreate good memories of vacations past, and that’s what we’re doing here today.
When the family and I went to Disney last February, Brother and I ate our way around the world at Epcot and planted ourselves for dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh in “Morocco” and had the most delicious mussels, Mussels Casablanca. I always think of a mussel dish as being light, but this saffron cream sauce was so decadent and indulgent, I haven’t been able to get it out of my head.
So, here’s my riff on it, these steamed mussels with saffron cream. I didn’t re-look at the menu until now and I realized that this recipe should also have diced tomatoes it in. Whoops, so I’m going to encourage you to throw in some diced tomatoes should you have them. If not, this version came out just as well.
And transported me back to the Happiest Place on Earth.
Written earlier on Saturday morning than I wanted to be awake.
Steamed Mussels in Saffron Cream
Fresh mussels cooked in a saffron infused cream broth with lemon and wine, and is a delicious and easy recipe to prepare steamed mussels with saffron cream.
Ingredients
- 1 TB unsalted butter
- 2 shallots, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic (about 1 TB), chopped
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1/2 cup sweet white wine
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1/8 tsp saffron
- 1 TB capers
- Bread, to serve
Directions
- Step 1 Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and garlic. Sauté until shallots are soft, about 5 minutes. Add wine, cream, lemon juice, saffron and capers and boil until liquid thickens, about 10 minutes. Add mussels. Cover and cook until mussels open, about 5 minutes. Divide mussels among 2 bowls (discard any mussels that do not open). Ladle broth over and serve garnished with cilantro.
I’m all about that May, June, Sept, Oct travel; off/low times where places aren’t full of tourists is totes my thing.
Ditto!